Bronx News Roundup, April 24

The SoHo offices of the Atlantic Development Group, which has worked on several Bronx housing projects and donated thousands of dollars to former Bronx B.P. Adolfo Carrion (as well as several other borough officials), was raided yesterday morning as part of a probe by the city's Department of Investigation.

The Daily News reports that the investigation may revolve around, among other things, whether Atlantic illegally influenced local politicians to win support for their projects. (Atlantic was also in the running for the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment project, but lost out the Related Companies, more on the Armory project later.) More on the raid here.

Earlier today, the Voice's Tom Robbins linked to Hunt's Point Express reporter Joe Hirsch's story about the unhappy tenants of an Atlantic building.

New evidence in the Deutsche Bank building manslaughter case against three construction supervisors has emerged that might help the defense. Two of the supervisors facing trial worked for the John Galt Corporation, which has its headquarters here in the northwest Bronx on Webster Avenue.

The Post reports on some the cuts the Bronx Zoo is preparing to make to bridge its $15 million budet gap. The deers, lemurs, caimans, porcupines, foxes and antelopes could all be shipped out.

Obscure Bronx Company Back in the Spotlight

The John Galt Corporation, a northwest Bronx-based company, is back in the news. And again, it's not positive. Federal regulators slapped John Galt and Bovis Lend Lease with 44 safety violations related to their demolition work at the former Deutsche Bank building. They may also face a half million dollars in fines.

John Galt surfaced last summer as the mysteriously inexperienced contractor behind the Deutsche Bank demolition project that erupted into a fire that killed two city firefighters. It was soon revealed that John Galt was collaboration between the Regional Scaffolding and Hoisting Company, a business with offices on Webster Avenue just north of Gun Hill Road (the same offices as John Galt, and former executives from Safeway Environmental Corporation (which has a troubled history with ties to organized crime, according to the New York Times).

John Galt, which hadn't done any demolition work prior to the Deutsche Bank job, was fired from the project soon after the fatal fire. But the job continues to haunt them.